Sunday 30 March 2014

Meet the women who make Bear Grylls look like a wimp! Namibia's San tribe live in the forbidding Kalahari Desert and hunt using poison-tipped arrows

Dressed in tanned springbok skins peppered with elaborately embroidered 'owl eyes', the women of the Ju/'hoansi San tribe might not look tough but with their lives spent in the Kalahari Desert, one of the most inhospitable locations on Earth, that's precisely what they are.
'The San are thought to have lived in the area for more than 23,000 years,' explains photographer Eric Lafforgue who captured these incredible images during a visit to Namibia's Otjozondjupa region where many of the tribe still live.
'Most of them live by hunting in the Nyae Nyae Conservancy [around Otjozondjupa capital Tsumkwe or Tjumǃkui in the local language], which is supposed to be controlled although the San have special permission,' he continues.
Colourful: The women of the San tribe make their colourful beads from ostrich egg shells and make extra money by selling them to tourists
Colourful: The women of the San tribe make their colourful beads from ostrich egg shells and make extra money by selling them to tourists

Tougher than Bear Grylls! Most members of the San tribe, this woman among them, live on the fringes of the inhospitable Kalahari Desert
Tougher than Bear Grylls! Most members of the San tribe, this woman among them, live on the fringes of the inhospitable Kalahari Desert

Useful: A woman carries a bi! bulb, which offer a useful source of drinkable, if extremely bitter, water - extremely handy during desert hunting expeditions
Useful: A woman carries a bi! bulb, which offer a useful source of drinkable, if extremely bitter, water - extremely handy during desert hunting expeditions

Colourful: The San love beaded jewelleryA grandmother shows off her impressive beads
Colourful: San people adore their brightly coloured beads, some of which are made from polished ostrich shell, and sell them to tourists to make extra money

Nomads: The San remain semi-nomadic but once wandered through all of southern Africa before other people moving in from the north pushed them into the Kalahari
Nomads: The San remain semi-nomadic but once wandered through all of southern Africa before other people moving in from the north pushed them into the Kalahari

Family life: The majority of San people who have stuck to their traditional lifestyle live in villages of five or six families and share everything
Family life: The majority of San people who have stuck to their traditional lifestyle live in villages of five or six families and share everything


'They use traditional methods such as a bow and arrow tipped with the poisonous sap of the euphorbia plant. The arrow only needs to nick the animal's skin for the poison to enter the bloodstream and the hunters track it until the animal collapses from the poison.'
So expert are the hunting skills of the San, men from the tribe were sought after by successive governments and co-opted into the army as trackers; most notoriously by South Africa's apartheid regime who used them to hunt down SWAPO rebels.
'They have a lot of superstitions about hunting,' adds Lafforgue. 'They say that if you walk face-first into a spider's web while hunting, you'll have bad luck, and if a man is a lazy hunter, he'll become a source of shame to the entire clan.'
Although the men are no longer forced into the army, their hunting skills still prove valuable in the hostile Kalahari desert, as does the tribe's incredible knowledge of plants.
Foraging is mostly done by the female half of the population, many of whom are expert gatherers and collect everything from ostrich eggs to plants, roots and insects.
The women wear beaded headbands - a sign of beautyOlder women spend a lot of their time making the elaborate beads
Elaborate: Much of the bead making work is done by older women who don't have the energy to forage and they make extra money from it by selling jewels to tourists

Tough: The Kalahari Desert covers 350,000sq miles of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and experiences temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius during the day
Tough: The Kalahari Desert covers 350,000sq miles of Namibia, Botswana and South Africa and experiences temperatures of up to 45 degrees Celsius during the day

Arid: The Kalahari is a semi-arid savannah and as a result, supports more plant and animal life than true deserts like the Namib in south-western Namibia
Arid: The Kalahari is a semi-arid savannah and as a result, supports more plant and animal life than true deserts like the Namib in south-western Namibia

Camp: Women sit outside the grass and reed homes they inhabit when they're on their N!ore or family lands which many use as a retreat
Camp: Women sit outside the grass and reed homes they inhabit when they're on their N!ore or family lands which many use as a retreat

Clever: San people know more than 300 different species of plants, many of which have medicinal purposes, whether treating rheumatism or combating hunger
Clever: San people know more than 300 different species of plants, many of which have medicinal purposes, whether treating rheumatism or combating hunger

Deadly: San hunters kill springboks, giraffes and other animals using poison tipped arrows and were once in high demand as army trackers
Deadly: San hunters kill springboks, giraffes and other animals using poison tipped arrows and were once in high demand as army trackers

Tasty: A man cuts into an Oryx Cucumber, which the San call Tc¿a. It's one of 100 species of edible plants included in Ju/'hoansi San's diet
Tasty: A man cuts into an Oryx Cucumber, which the San call Tc’a. It's one of 100 species of edible plants included in Ju/'hoansi San's diet

Lucrative: A man shows off a sprig of hoodia; a plant traditionally used to stave off hunger pangs by the San and now marketed as a diet supplement in the West
Lucrative: A man shows off a sprig of hoodia; a plant traditionally used to stave off hunger pangs by the San and now marketed as a diet supplement in the West

Worth digging for: A man shows off his bi! bulbSan are also brilliant at creating fires without matches - an essential skill in the desert
Survival skills: A man holding a bi! bulb which contains drinkable, if very bitter water (left) and another man sat in front of a fire created without using matches



FANCY TRYING YOUR HAND AT SURVIVAL SAN STYLE? HERE'S HOW YOU CAN GET INVOLVED:

Eric travelled with guides from Exotic Travel and Safaris, which offers a 12-day tour that includes a visit to meet the San people plus accommodation, meals and transfers, with packages starting at £1,874 per person. For more information, see exotictravelsafaris.com
South African Airways offers return flights to Windhoek from London Heathrow via Johannesburg from £1,010. See flysaa.com for more. For further information on Namibia, please visit namibiatourism.com.na
For more of Eric's work both in Namibia and elsewhere, see ericlafforgue.com.
One of the most helpful is a tuber called the bi! [milk] bulb, which soaks up rainfall and once dug up, emits streams of drinkable - if bitter- water when crushed.
Even more valuable, both for survival and financially, is the hoodia plant which the San have long used as an appetite suppressant during long desert marches but is now being marketed as a weight loss supplement in the West.
So effective is the substance, the Namibian government has had to pass a bill to prevent unscrupulous people from exploiting the San's knowledge of plants like hoodia, and another, devil's claw, which they use to treat rheumatism.
In total, the Ju/'hoansi San use around 300 different plants, with 100 of those forming a regular part of the diet. 'The San menu is mostly antelope, small animals, fruit such as the Marula, nuts, berries, roots and Tsama melons,' adds Lafforgue.
'The children in particular love game meat. One little boy I met told me that his favourite food was giraffe!'
While many of the San do continue to live traditional lifestyles, others have found jobs on farms and in tourism, and use their family's N!ore, or home patch of land, as a weekend retreat.
Others choose to live in the style of their ancestors - even indulging in the traditional courtship ritual that can prove to be, quite literally, a pain in the bottom for the women of the tribe.
'If you want to reveal your love for a San woman, you take a little bow and shoot a tiny arrow into her bottom,' reveals Lafforgue. 'If the girl isn't interested, she’ll slap you. If she is, you have to ask her parents or grandparents for permission to marry her. Divorce doesn't exist in San culture.'
And, as Lafforgue points out, neither does a passion for material things. 'You’ll never hear a San boasting about his exploits - people are part of an egalitarian society, so they never boast,' he explains. 'There's also a lack of emphasis on prestige or wealth in San culture - something unusual in Africa.'
That's how you do it! A San man squeezes the water from a bu! bulb during a hunt out in the wilds of the forbidding Kalahari desert
That's how you do it! A San man squeezes the water from a bu! bulb during a hunt out in the wilds of the forbidding Kalahari desert

Medicinal: A hunter tucks into a piece of the Terminalia sericea plant which comes in handy when you have a cold - the plant is either eaten or wrapped around the head
Medicinal: A hunter tucks into a piece of the Terminalia sericea plant which comes in handy when you have a cold - the plant is either eaten or wrapped around the head
Ouch! One of the men demonstrates how to use a tiny bow and arrow, which San men use to shoot women they've taken a shine to. If she slaps him, he's out of luck
Ouch! One of the men demonstrates how to use a tiny bow and arrow, which San men use to shoot women they've taken a shine to. If she slaps him, he's out of luck

Friendly: Materialism doesn't exist in San culture and you'll never hear them boasting or coveting lots of things as society is extremely egalitarian
Friendly: Materialism doesn't exist in San culture and you'll never hear them boasting or coveting lots of things as society is extremely egalitarian
Schoolgirl: Many people have moved to towns such as Tsumkwe (Tjum¿kui in the local language) so they can send their sons and daughters to school
Schoolgirl: Many people have moved to towns such as Tsumkwe (Tjumǃkui in the local language) so they can send their sons and daughters to school

Not a fan of ice cream! When asked what his favourite food was by photographer Eric Lafforgue, this young man replied that it was giraffe
Not a fan of ice cream! When asked what his favourite food was by photographer Eric Lafforgue, this young man replied that it was giraffe
Work: Many San have swapped traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles for work as labourers on local farms, although many use their family lands as a weekend retreat
Work: Many San have swapped traditional hunter-gatherer lifestyles for work as labourers on local farms, although many use their family lands as a weekend retreat

Women's work: While much of the hunting is done by men, women are in charge of gathering edible roots, plants and insects as well as medicinal ones
Women's work: While much of the hunting is done by men, women are in charge of gathering edible roots, plants and insects as well as medicinal ones

Baffling: Counting beyond 10 is a mystery for most San, who don't have a translation for numbers beyond that and have to think hard about it if you ask
Baffling: Counting beyond 10 is a mystery for most San, who don't have a translation for numbers beyond that and have to think hard about it if you ask

BAFFLED BY ALL THE EXCLAMATION MARKS? THE SAN 'CLICK' LANGUAGE EXPLAINED

Thought to be more than 2,000 years old, the clicking sounds used by the San people might sound as if they've been chosen completely random to those unfamiliar with them but are actually four distinct sounds, each of which has a different meaning.
Written, the main ones are /, =, !, and # plus another known as 'the Kiss' because it sounds similar. Bafflingly for those attempting to learn the language, the tribe as a whole speaks 20 different variants, each with clicks, but all different enough to be incomprehensible to speakers of a different dialect.
The San's clicking language has also had an impact on the languages of other southern African tribes, among them the !Nama of Namibia and the !Xhosa of South Africa, both of which deploy clicks.
Despite the complexity of their language, the San approach to numbers is simple in the extreme. 'San don't count beyond 10,' says Lafforgue. 'If you ask them how they say 26 or 52, they need to think about it.'
Sadly, as Lafforgue explains, the language is in danger as San children who go to school, a step seen as hugely important by San parents, aren't taught in their mother tongue.
'Education is very important in San culture as unemployment is very high in the community,' explains Lafforgue. 'In primary school, San kids don't learn the San language as the teachers are Ovambo people.'
Traditional: San live in small villages of around five or six shelters, each created using reeds, grasses and plants taken from the Kalahari
Traditional: San live in small villages of around five or six shelters, each created using reeds, grasses and plants taken from the Kalahari

Convivial: A group of San sit around their fire at the end of a long day labouring on local farms or hunting in the Kalahari desert
Convivial: A group of San sit around their fire at the end of a long day labouring on local farms or hunting in the Kalahari desert

Adorable: A youngster peeps out from within a Springbok skin wrap - the wraps are tied securely around the mother's neck and back
Adorable: A youngster peeps out from within a Springbok skin wrap - the wraps are tied securely around the mother's neck and back

Care: Old people are taken care of by other members of their family and by members of the wider tribe
Care: Old people are taken care of by other members of their family and by members of the wider tribe who give them part of anything they gather or trap

Retreat: Although many San have moved into town to work, lots return to their family N!ore come weekends for a spot of rest and relaxation
Retreat: Although many San have moved into town to work, lots return to their family N!ore come weekends for a spot of rest and relaxation

DM

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